Fewer weekend COVID cases in Tri-Cities. Drive-thru testing hours cutting back

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 65 new confirmed COVID-19 cases since Friday.

That makes an average of about 22 new cases a day in the Tri-Cities area for the three days that include the weekend, down from an average of 31 a day for the previous weekend.

There were no new deaths from complications of COVID-19 reported locally on Monday.

Updated information on patient being treated at area hospitals for COVID-19 was posted for the first time in several days after the Washington state Department of Health resolved data collection issues for hospitalized patients.

There were 34 patients hospitalized locally for COVID treatment, which was in line with numbers from earlier this month before data issues were discovered.

They account for 10% of all patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

Local public health officials were not sure what to expect in terms of new cases reported over the weekend, as test results were expected from some the test samples collected in the previous week.

The HAPO Center testing site in Pasco was shut down for several days to protect its National Guard workers from the smoke blanketing the Tri-Cities. That was expected to reduce positive test results received over the weekend.

The HAPO Center testing center averaged 140 samples collected a day before the shutdown, with that and other testing averaging a total of 230 people tested per day.

But at the same time as local public health officials thought that limited testing might cause a drop in new confirmed cases, they also have been watching for any possible increase after Labor Day weekend.

They have seen upticks in new cases reported following past holidays, like Memorial Day and Independence Day, as people gather with friends or in large groups and are exposed to the coronavirus.

It can take about two weeks for an increase in cases to be seen after a holiday weekend because of the time needed to develop symptoms, to get tested and then for test results to be available and reported to the Benton Franklin Health District.

The cases reported on Monday included 29 in Benton County and 36 in Franklin County.

Benton County now has had a total of 4,414 cases since the start of the pandemic and Franklin County has had 4,191 cases.

The two counties have lost 163 people to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. They include 114 people living in Benton County and 49 in Franklin County.

Benton County has more than twice as many people as Franklin County and a larger percentage of its population is elderly.

Shortened testing hours

The hours the Washington National Guard will be offering free drive-thru testing at the HAPO Center in Pasco will be reduced this week, with the service ending at 3 p.m.

Some of the National Guard workers at the site have been reassigned.

Testing will be offered 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays with no appointment necessary.

Benton Franklin Health District said more free testing options will be coming to the Tri-Cities area soon as it works through Health Commons to add more testing sites.

The Washington state Department of Health has a contract with Health Commons, a nonprofit that helps coordinate care within the health system to make it easier for people to access.

Local service providers are being trained through Health Commons to operate high-volume testing sites, keeping jobs local while building testing capacity in communities with high levels of COVID-19 cases.

Seattle Fire, a founding member of Health Commons, has worked with other Seattle-area agencies to test about 5,000 people a day in western Washington.

Testing also is available at clinics in the Tri-Cities area. The local health district has details posted at bit.ly/TCtestingsites.

Washington state

The Washington State Department of Health on Sunday reported 349 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and on Saturday reported 597. The department is no longer reporting deaths on weekends.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 82,548 cases and 2,037 deaths

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 21,453 cases and 751 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,283 cases and 256 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 7,552 and 191 deaths, according to state data.

Benton and Franklin rank sixth and seventh for cases, following Snohomish and Spokane counties.

All counties in Washington have cases. Wahkiakum is the only county with a case count less than 10.

Lauren Kirschman of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 1:59 PM.